The invention relates generally to apparatus and method for coating objects using an optical system. For example, in one embodiment, an optical system is used to coat medical products such as a stent with biologically active substances.
Coating objects such as for example medical devices such as stents, with a substance such as for example a biologically active substance is a complex process because precise manipulation of the coating material is typically desirable. Such coating material can be, for example, deoxyribo nucleic acid (DNA), ribo nucleic acid (RNA), viruses or pharmaceutical substances. Because the typical costs of such coating materials are high, high processing yields are desirable.
Known coating processes, however, typically do not provide sufficient precision to produce high processing yield for such applications as coating medical devices with biologically active substances. Such known coating processes include, for example, spraying, dip-coating, fluidized-bed coating and electrostactic spraying. These known coating processes cannot precisely coat a device or product such that the size and chemical composition of each individual droplet or a collection of droplets being coated is controlled.
Thus, a need exists for a coating process having sufficient precision to result in high processing yields when coating products such as for example medical devices with a substance such as for example a biological active substance.